So it wasn't when Senator Clinton conceded in a nationally televised speech, or when she was part of a carefully orchestrated nominating process at the convention, or even when she and her husband campaigned vigorously for now President-elect Obama in the weeks leading up to the election that took place nearly a month ago now. No, according to Alessandra Stanley of the NY Times, Senator Clinton's real concession took place yesterday.

That was hardly the case on Monday when President-elect Barack Obama introduced his national security team. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech was no ordinary public-service pledge; for plenty of viewers, it was the moment when Mrs. Clinton finally conceded the election for real.

The occasion was solemn, but like a wedding where the parents are divorced, the ceremony was carefully choreographed to avert awkward moments and camouflage past unpleasantness.

How much of the drama between Obama and Clinton--for that matter, how much of any drama surrounding anyone with the last name Clinton--is created out of whole cloth by a press corps who have decided that it's time to move on from covering Republican incompetence and back to scandalous behavior, even when there's no scandal there to cover.